News Releases

Northrop Grumman-Built LCROSS Set to Launch June 17

Core Facts

 * NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and 
   Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft are the first steps 
   in NASA's plan to return humans to the moon. 
 * The LCROSS spacecraft was built and integrated by Northrop Grumman 
   under contract to NASA Ames Research Center and was available for 
   acceptance in 29 months. The total mission cost is $79 million.
 * The LCROSS payload was developed, integrated and tested by NASA 
   Ames Research Center.
 * LCROSS was built using an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle
   (EELV) secondary payload adapter, or ESA ring, as the spacecraft
   structure, and costs were kept low by reusing existing
   hardware/hardware designs and commercial-off-the-shelf products.  
 * LCROSS is a short duration mission.  The LCROSS spacecraft will 
   shepherd the Earth departure upper stage of the Atlas V rocket, 
   upon which it will be launched, to impact the moon to help confirm 
   the presence of water ice in a permanently shadowed lunar crater 
   and to characterize other regolith properties within the crater.
 * LCROSS's impact will create a greater than 250-metric-ton plume of
   ejecta reaching as high as 6.2 miles (10 km) above the target
   crater's rim. 
 * The impact will be visible to space- and land-based observatories 
   in Hawaii and the continental U.S.
 * The LCROSS template represents a new generation of fast development 
   missions designed to achieve focused mission goals.

Quotes

 * "LCROSS is a faster, cheaper and good enough spacecraft." -- Steve 
   Hixson, vice president of Advanced Concepts, Space & Directed Energy
   Systems for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems sector
 * "There was a time when developing the LCROSS spacecraft and 
   instrument payload was thought improbable at best ...that we'd be 
   fortunate to merely bust our budget, let alone successfully build a 
   spacecraft in time." -- Dan Andrews, LCROSS project manager for 
   NASA Ames Research Center
 * LRO/LCROSS is our first important step to knowing the moon as well 
   as we know Mars."  -- Rick Gilbrech, former Associate Administrator, 
   NASA ESMD
 * "Congratulations to LCROSS on your innovative approaches and 
   tactics." -- Michael Griffin, former NASA Administrator NASA-HQ 
 * "I would like to see an LCROSS-like science mission every year. 
   NASA should pursue a common architecture/bus for doing this." -- 
   Alan Stern, former Director of the Science Mission Directorate for 
   NASA-HQ  
 * "LCROSS is the simplest spacecraft we've ever had to process here at 
   Astrotech." -- Gerard Gleeson, Lead Planner for Astrotech Space 
   Operations

Boilerplate

 * Northrop Grumman is a leader in space exploration and has built 
   many of NASA's smallest, and largest, spacecraft.  The company is 
   leading an industrial team for NASA as the prime contractor for the 
   James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched in 2014.   
 * Northrop Grumman is leveraging 50 years of flight heritage to 
   provide fast turnaround, low-cost solutions with a user focus, like 
   LCROSS, to meet customer requirements.   
 * Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company 
   whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and 
   solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, 
   shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial 
   customers worldwide.